The Big Meeting Chpt#4

Talk about going to a meeting unprepared.

When we were invited to a meeting with the builder and agents about the possibility of having the builder build a home and THEN having us buy it, we thought it was a meet and greet to talk about the POSSIBILITY of this happening.

What we failed to understand was that in THEIR eyes, it was a done deal. it was the perfetc storm for both of us. They build a house that we want and we buy it.

For us we were still in the “let’s not think too far ahead and get excited” stage.

We arrived, shook hands with Kevin the dealer (hands were the size of a newspaper, HUGE) and then things really got rolling.

We knew the builder had five lots he wanted to build on and we had picked one out already. As luck would have it, IT WAS AVAILABLE!!

The original house (I will call it 522) was snatched away from us was a north facing house, this lot would give us a south facing back (which is the main face of the house). I seems most new homes are now orientated so that the main “looking out” side of the house is the back with garage in front.

We already had a floor plan picked out from 522 but this lot was sloping so the plans would call for a walk-out basement with the deck, now on the “second” story.

Instead of the house on the left we would now have the house on the right. We were told it will not cost that much more and the builder (who knows what price range we are in, said it was not a concern).

So with what we thought were the important decisions over, we relaxed a little. Little knowing the onslaught of questions about to come.

The builder said that if weather cooperated it would take a little over four months to build and all we needed was a small down payment. Just something so we could not just back out willy nilly.

THEN, he starts to ask us questions on “tweaks” to the house. It was decided we all go over the original house and discuss any changes.

Let me tell you right now. THIS is the danger point as you guys on the HGTV forum pointed out. So many little things that seem small but if you add an extra little 30 upgrades. CHING CHING!! $$$$$

We started with small upgrades knowing that some would have to be cut later. The builder Kevin was awesome. He told us things he would have done differently and offered suggestions and how much “about” this and that would be. We both loved his style.

In the beginning we wanted THAT house. But we felt having the EXACT house of someone else might be creepy! SO . . . . .

The "dining room" was six feet wide. He said on paper it looked good but in real life it could be cramped. This mirrored exactly what DJ had been saying also. Expand it four feet. CHING!

He could also add an extra window on each side making it into a sun room. CHING!

The living room was perfect as was the fireplace.

There is a small wall which separates the living room from the kitchen. We felt that since you NEVER want to have furniture up against the wall if you have the space (all or our funiture is agains the wall at the moment) this wall could be useful if we made the top wider by an inch or so. It would be more of a shelf.

Doors were talked about and we decided to keep the cheaper doors for now as this was an expense that we could pass over.

Of course now that we had a walk-out basement we needed a finished room down there, 10-15K CHING! Look at it this way. We would “sooner or later” want to finish off the basement right? Why not spend the money now and spread the cost out over 30 years.

We decided that the three car garage (two car and storage) should be flipped with the main two car slot in the middle and the storage on the outside. Also add a door to the outside from the storage garage.

As you can see , 522 has the two-car on the outside.

We also thought the front of the original house was sort of bland and when we mentioned this Kevin (builder) pointed to the house across the street which was the same house but the front was tweaked with a small front porch and columns. Notice they have the two car on the inside. We thought the middle column could be taken out as it sort of cluttered things up a little.

Speaking of columns. it would be nice to have partial brick as this house has. CHING!

Back inside the house we were discussing the windows and we liked the “grids” (for lack of another word) on the front side windows but we thought we would rather have no grid on the main windows. (Hey, saving $20 a window there!!)

Also the entire house would be flipped backwards. Garages should always be on the uphill side of the house so that we were flipping.

There were all sorts of other things to think about. To many to discuss here from kitchen cabinets, to lowering the ceiling one foot, to bath tubs, to two sinks and light fixtures, carpeting, counter tops, type of wood on the deck and dozens of other things?

And remember, we THOUGHT we were their just to see if this was possible.!!! Not to actually make decisions!! LOL

Luckily he was just mentioning EVERYTHING because he said many people are surprised at just how many things there are to decide on. The details did not need to be decided on now, he was just getting our brains going.

SO! He took our basic foundation ideas and we are going to have another meeting the first week of January to start to iron things out.

My God – this IS happening!

Now we have to sell OUR house!!

Talk to ya next time!